Saturday, January 3

Nuts & Bolts publishing house are now up to Volume 33 in their comprehensive vehicle and weapon study with their latest book on the "Leichte Feldhaubitze 18, GW II für le.F.H. 18/2 “Wespe” and “Hummel-Wespe.” These books are known for a threefold approach trying to capture all pertinent to a weapon or vehicle through text, pictorial and then some modelling prowess thrown in. Let’s see if their latest is up with their greatest.

There are several good books on the market that are “all in
one’s” and several, well… others.. If you know what I mean – A few good book
makers tend to usually get it right in mixing contents of pictorial past and present, detail shots, a decent
amount of interesting text to cover the object’s development and deployment and
last of all for this audience at least – some modelling interest thrown in. I
mean, if you aren’t modelling something you are just talking about it. It is
the books which have all of that AND modelling relevance that I find the most
interesting. Nuts & Bolts is usually one of these publishers that manages
to collect all the bits I want to see in one spine in high quality. So I do expect a lot from
each subsequent release.

I also understand that there is more than just me to please
when making a book so different aspects of this mix will be more important to
others. There are armchair enthusiasts. Detail freaks who love plans and
counting those rivets, and others who like artist’s profiles. These book usually
cover all of these so I can understand that this publisher has been turning out
these books for nearly 20 years. Quite an achievement.

It was a long time ago – before I even was reading modelling
books after my 20’s “lost decade” of modelling (didn’t we all go there?) that
Nuts & Bolts released a book on the “Wespe.” It was pretty much like what
we see now but a lot less in each book. In those eighteen years since No#2 “Wespe”
was released there have been a lot more included in the books in the way of so
much more than museum visits and walk-arounds and some text. I will take you
through this new book that not only features on the Hummel –Wespe family but also
opened up to include the artillery piece which bears the Leichte Feldhaubitze
18.

Like the others in the series this is a portrait format book
(dimensions: 29,5 x 21 cm) of German & English text with a glossy softcover
binding filled with 184 pages packed with 353 photos of which there are 198
historical pictures, 40 model shots & 115 modern walk around images.
Included are scale line drawings of forty variants in 2D & 3D of this gun
and the AFV that carried it as well as artist’s renderings of thirteen camouflage
schemes in profile… Ohh don’t forget the illustrations of tactical markings and
table of organisations these vehicles operated within. There is a hell of a lot
more here than you might have found in the original volume it seems. Let’s have
a look at each of the sections in turn.

We start off with the text section at the start of the book.
To be honest it is a bit daunting to flick through at first and there is so
much presented I will just give a brief rundown of the contents. Fifty pages of
pretty much text only with a few pictures to illustrate the points the author
is talking about. The trick is just to dive in – as before you know it you are
a fair way into the book and each page you are finding out about more and more
aspects of the gun and the AFV that carried it. Secondly the block of text is
not so daunting when you realize that each page is only half a page – as the
other side is always in either German or English depending on what side you are
better at reading. So really it is under twenty five pages of insightful info
on the development of the weapons and their employment and use.

The development of the 10.5 cm Leichte Feldhaubitze 18M and
how it was conceived in a mate with Russian carriage, it’s running gear the mounting
on the Wespe and Hummel is discussed as are the camouflage and markings and
dispersal of each gun and AFV in a unit. To be fair the main part of this block
text describes the deployment to each of the artillery units of these guns and
AFV’s so again if this type of detail isn’t your bag you can skip parts of it
as it is clearly marked with headings. There are some very interesting parts of
the text describing the Wespe class in combat in “after action reports” that
should not be missed. They talk of an integrated fully mobile artillery that
works in combination with other assets behind the lines – something armies
around the world take for granted now.

The reader breaks through this section into the clearing of period photographs.
These black and white shots show firstly the Leichte Feldhaubitze 18M
in many theatres and conditions as well as being manipulated by it’s crews and
in action as well as being drawn by horse and truck. We look at the early mating of this gun and
hull to make the Wespe along with initial trails and early deployment of these
AFV’s through to the many different theatres of war the Hummel/ Wespe served in
showing all types of conditions from snow to arid climates. The soldiers who
crewed them are featured as well as their transportation on rail and road.

This section is set out as usually three or four pictures to
a page, so if you are looking for large format images only this isn’t all you
need. The pictures used are all pretty clear and well shot by mostly the people
who were in the same unit and not beaten up examples after destruction. It
gives more of a sense of the diorama in your mind. Helpful text in both English
and German is included to pick out interesting points in each shot as well.

Next we get all technical again with scale line drawings of
every type of incarnation of the le F.H 18M and the Wespe/Hummel family I could
ever think of. Thirteen pages of 2D and 3D plans are included – even the
munitions schlepper and the horse drawn limber are included in these drawings.
Certainly in line with the rest of the book showing a completist’s collection.

The next part I liked quite a lot – it features a colour
profile of twelve of the Wespe’s featured in this book. Ammo carriers and the
ammo they carried are also included. Small pictures are included showing each
in it’s prime which is a thing I always like to see. Historical evidence is
after all why we buy these type of books! Some great schemes in there – it sure
gets your modelling juices flowing.

Now we go back to the future and all around the world with visits
to fourteen different museum locations to see how that guns and AFV’s have
fared in the 70-odd years since they saw combat. The pictures of each of the
guns and mobile pieces are earmarked with which museum they are from and
interesting text on each of them. It’s interesting to see what colours have
been applied since the end of the war. Some being left pristine and some with
some “enhancements” in colour.

These are true walk arounds with the best angles and
variations in slight detail captured with the best photographs we think the
authors had of each type. This gives us more variation and the ability to
choose between sub-variants and to indeed be aware of new types, parts and
materials used. Inside and outside the buns and tanks are show including radios
and optics. I really do feel for the photographers who have done an admirable
job of taking good shots – often in really crappy light! I'll wager some museums provide poor lighting as standard so you keep on coming back to try to get better photos I swear it.

The last section is again interesting for it’s own reason. Tony Greenland who
often models for this series again does an admirable job on a scale model of “42”
Wespe as well as his le F.H 18M. These are two very nice models and although
the field gun isn’t finished you can see he will do a good job on it if the
paint is anything like the Wespe which is a first class build.

That rounds this book out. I for one am glad that this
subject of the le F.H 18M field gun and the Wespe/ Hummel family are the
highlight of one of these books. This book updates the volume#2 from 18 years
ago and adds so much more you could well forget the older volume existed. There
textual history and minute detail, the plans, colour schemes and walkaround as
well as a model (and a half) build up are in there so this book pretty much
captures the everything for everyone tag.

The Nuts & Bolts team have covered this gun and the
tracked version comprehensively and more importantly it’s been done in an
interesting manner. This is a good book.

Adam Norenberg

Thanks to the guys at
Nuts & Bolts for
sending this book for us to read and review.